Current YouTube statistics show that, on average, 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute with 70% of YouTube traffic coming from outside the U.S. Millions subscribe each day with over 800 million unique visits being reported each month. It ‘s estimated that by 2015, over one million minutes will cross the Internet every second. Clearly, video is one of the reasons why broadband bandwidth is on the rise.

With this growth, consumers are demanding video, and businesses are pressed in every way to ensure that they deliver, otherwise their competitor will gladly fill that need. What can you do to ensure that you take advantage of the growing video needs of your consumers? Even more importantly, how can you leverage video for your business?

As it turns out, video resources are in plenty on the web. Let's look at some free online resources and see how you can leverage them to increase your customer participation, engagement and boost your revenue.

Animoto

Animoto helps you easily select photos and video clips from a bunch of online sources like Facebook and Flickr or your own device; it also lets you add music or an audio clip and share your video on a host of social networks, including YouTube and email. You can also download your video for later use. The free Lite version allows you to select from a growing list of themes. Some free themes include Retro Wheel, Vintage Voyage, Simplicty, Water, Vibrance, etc..

Animoto's one-click Remix is able to analyze your images and music to render your video. A 30-second clip will only take you about 3-4 minutes to get ready. You can access more professional features by purchasing Animoto's premium plans.

Muvee

Muvee is a cloud tool that is simple to use, supports private sharing and with only a click of a button, give you your very own custom-made "muvees." The tool takes on a whole new approach to making videos. Termed the "Muvee Cloud," the idea is to consolidate photos and videos from different parties into a private online album. From there, it is a three-step process: Choose your content, pick a style and select your choice of music. Muvee will take care of the rest and produce a video clip that you can share on the Muvee Cloud, in a blog or on Facebook and other social networks.

YouTube editors

Did you know that right inside YouTube, you can get a bunch of free tools that let you create, edit, cut and do a bunch of things to your uploaded videos? Some of these tools are really amazing and Google has gone to great lengths to ensure that you can pretty much do anything you want with your videos on your channel. A bunch of these tools let you create your very own versions of videos by adding animations, titles, effects, text and pretty much anything you find users adding to their YouTube videos. Examples of some of these apps include GoAnimate, that lets you make free 10-minute animated videos; Magisto, that analyzes your videos and selects the best parts to make them look amazing; Vlix, that lets you overlay your videos with artistic effects, time-altering and text effects among tools that will blow your mind.

Learning how to create and edit online video content will future-proof your business as we usher in the age of web video. Have you gotten down and dirty into using online video tools? What tools have you used and what has been your experience? Share your knowledge below:

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About David Gitonga

David Gitonga is an avid reader and writer and has worked with various companies to design, develop, and maintain their websites. He has worked with websites as an online content marketing strategist in the field of tech, social media, design, and de...

Full Bio

David Gitonga is an avid reader and writer and has worked with various companies to design, develop, and maintain their websites. He has worked with websites as an online content marketing strategist in the field of tech, social media, design, and development. A tech enthusiast, he explores ways that businesses can leverage the Internet and move their businesses to the next level. He also works with various tech journals and popular websites that report on industry news, especially in the cloud computing field. He holds a degree in Information Technology. He owns and runs the website E-LABZ.